After completing my analysis of Risk, Settlers of Catan, and Diplomacy, I moved into the third phase of my research: educational application. This part of the project was the most speculative – since I have no educational training other than my own experience as a student – but was also the most enjoyable. Connecting the intricacies of IR theory to my longtime passion for board games was gratifying. I believe the potential for board games in education, specifically in the teaching of IR theory, is great and, as of yet, mostly untapped.

After completing the concept diagram of IR theories and concepts I began the next step of my research: analyzing board game rule-books. I consider this phase to be the ‘meat’ of my research. The concept diagram (phase 1) was compiled to enable board game analysis and any educational applications of the relationship between board games and political theory is dependent on said analysis.

Before I begin to analyze popular board games for their relationship with International Relations (IR) theory, I needed to create a comprehensive pool of all IR theory since one did not previously exist. Having a single source for all of my reference work when conducting analysis of board games will reduce any errors resulting from cognitive bias (forgetting, lack of understanding, etc..) It will also help to delineate the ‘edges’ of my project. Creating a single source to reference before conducting analysis will eliminate the temptation to cherry-pick theories from the sprawling IR-literature.

At the advent of World War Two, the geo-political state of the world was filled with aggression and chaos. The throes of the Great Depression were racking the world’s economic systems, new and destructive ideologies were sweeping through national governments, and at the center of it all, the newly created League of Nations, a supranational organization designed to arbitrate peace and promote prosperity, was failing to prevent war and other aggressive actions from nations. This failing of the League of Nations is known to be total, but the significant part of the failure, the reason why the League of Nations failed, is a question that needs to be thoroughly answered. I am conducting this research project to discover why and how the League of Nations’ governing bodies failed or were unable to abide by its collective security mandate during the Abyssinia Crisis.